Lecturing at a Catholic liberal arts college

By a concatenation of circumstances it would be amusing to explain, I found myself lecturing at a liberal arts college in Slovakia last week at the invitation of its founder & rector, Dr. Martin Luteran. (Funny name for a Catholic.) Here’s the college, in an old palace outside of Bratislava, built in the age of Maria Theresia, mid-late 18th c., by an important aristocratic family in the Austrian empire, the Grassalkovich, agents of the Habsburg in the Eastern part of the empire. Then, it was redone to some extent in the Neo-Gothic & art nouveau styles in the era of “historical styles,” as you can see in the photo below. (At that point, ownership had passed to some members of the Hunyadi family—also a storied aristocratic lineage in Central Europe, from Romania to Hungary to Slovakia.) As is inevitable in old buildings, at some point it suffered from a fire, which is why it doesn’t look very symmetrical anymore, some part, I think a tower, had to be pulled down because of the damage. Yet the palace survived & there’s a lot of Austrian history in the building, as you can see—it may therefore be an especially fitting home for an institution of education…

The college itself is a creature of the 21st c., however, indeed, of our moment—part of the attempt to find older, more fundamentally human ways of educating people, preserving our civilizational legacy—therefore trying to understand it, to bring it back to life. (You can learn & see more at the KAN website.) It’s unique in its focus on great books in Slovakia, but it also is attempting to help the educational system by producing courses & curricula for letters & arts, to elevate the offering in high schools. If this sounds quite American to you, you’re on to something. Dr. Luteran in fact got some of his ideas, inspiration, & support from his time in D.C. as a Witherspoon Fellow, first started a fellowship, then, building on its success, in 2009 started the college. The institution has since expanded to include a primary school & looks to expand further into a complete educational system. It’s an ambitious & impressive enterprise, a rare thing in Europe, so I was very pleased to visit. My expectation was fulfilled, Dr. Luteran as a founder is as impressive as his work suggests, & it in turn gives a good measure of his ability.

You can see Dr. Luteran below, under a portrait of the patron of the college, Anton Neuwirth, one of the major anti-Communist dissidents in Slovakia, who was thrown in jail by Communists in 1953, survived the ordeal, then participated in the Velvet Revolution in 1989 & became an important politician in the process of democratization in the 1990s. Neuwirth was still active in his 80s, helping Dr. Luteran start his fellowship & college, which in turn will preserve Neuwirth’s legacy. The college has also obtained a papal blessing in the Jubilee year, so it should do just fine!

Now, my day at Kolegium Antona Neuwirtha is no basis for judgment of anything, the institution stands rather on its remarkable success over these 17 years—but it was very pleasant for me. The staff & faculty seemed at home with each other, friendly, involved in a common life as much as a common project; the students had a similar quality; all were very welcoming, quite a few had questions & we discussed things at length, schedule permitting.

My business was fairly simple, I gave a talk on the crisis of Enlightenment education & the classical alternative, part of a book I’m working on—this was addressed to faculty & staff, on the character of the work of the educator, on the dependence of our work on philosophy. I touched on Socrates. Then we had a discussion about the dramatic situation in which we find ourselves & how we might make our way out. I’m grateful for it—such lectures & discussions help quite a bit with the formulation of my thoughts for educators.

Aside from that, I led an evening seminar with the students, reflecting on the problem of patriotism in light of the writing of Pope John Paul II, especially Memory & Identity. As it turns out, this was the concluding seminar of the year, so we had the opportunity in a way to celebrate the accomplishments of the college & students together, thinking through what they are attempting to achieve. I tried to outline the opposition between state & culture, the Catholic dilemma in the modern world, & the character of the typical Catholic efforts at restoration. I’m not Catholic, so I judge in light of history & the speeches of the major figures, but I’m a great admirer of the late pope & think that much could be said on the basis of his teaching & his example about what there is to do today. All in all, the students were interested enough that we continued the conversation over a very pleasant dinner—which the students cooked, since they’re in residence at the palace.

Perhaps I should leave you with the thoughts of a more impressive figure than myself—Fr. Robert Sirico, the founder of the Acton Institute, is a friend of the college & has recently lectured there, a few weeks before me, in fact: